


just say you won’t let go

by mycanonnevercame



Category: Daredevil (TV), The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, just a bit of fluff, the barest minimum of plot, this is corny as hell, youve been warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-03-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23344504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mycanonnevercame/pseuds/mycanonnevercame
Summary: Frank is leaving the city, but before he goes, he has one question for Karen.
Relationships: Frank Castle/Karen Page
Comments: 10
Kudos: 73





	just say you won’t let go

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song Say You Won’t Let Go by James Arthur. Because I am a corny bitch.

“I bought a ranch,” Frank says abruptly, like he’s been choking the words down for hours and can’t hold them back anymore.

All the air leaves Karen’s lungs in a rush, but she tries to hide the pain behind a congratulatory smile. She’s known this was coming, somehow, known it for weeks. Had really just been waiting for it to happen, for him to leave.

“Oh,” she manages to say. “That’s— wonderful, Frank. Where?”

“Idaho,” he says on a nervous laugh. “It’s, uh, outside this tiny little town, only seven hundred residents. Nice house, lots of land, some cattle and horses.”

He sounds so good, right now, so hopeful, and Karen feels like the worst sort of friend because she’s dying inside. She should be overjoyed for him, and she will be — maybe, eventually — but right now all she can think is how badly she wants him to stay. How they haven’t had enough time.

Not that she could ever get enough time with Frank.

And they’ve had so very _little_ time, carefully feeling out his after together. She’s been patient, partly because she had to, but also because this is important to her. Frank is important to her, and she could wait, for him. She _would_ wait for him, as long as he needed.

She just hadn’t expected her time to run out before her patience.

“Do you have pictures?” She asks, because she has to say _something_.

“Yeah, course,” he says, pulling out his phone. They huddle over the small screen, close, but not touching — never touching, Frank only touches her in life or death situations, much to her dismay — and he shows her the house and the surrounding property, gesturing as he talks. It’s rare that she sees him so animated, and she keeps having to drag her gaze away from his face and back to his phone.

The ranch is beautiful, acres of farmland surrounding a medium-sized farmhouse. There’s a huge garden and a couple outbuildings. He even pulls up Google maps and shows her where it is, a tiny dot twenty four hundred miles away. She can already feel every one of those miles opening up between them like a gaping chasm.

“You’ll stay in touch?” She says, interrupting his explanation of what crops he’s thinking of planting, and he blinks at her in surprise.

“Karen—“ he says, something unguarded in his voice, but then he hesitates, and the moment stretches out, heavy with a meaning she can’t quite decode. He opens his mouth, but then he frowns, looking away, and she lets out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “Course I’ll keep in touch,” he says, looking back at her earnestly. “You, too, okay?”

“Okay,” she nods, her heart a lead weight in her chest.

His lips twitch in a smile that’s at odds with the flash of sadness in his eyes, both gone so quickly she’s not sure either was real. “Okay,” he echoes.

He leaves a few minutes later, promising to let her know if there’s anything she can help with as he prepares for the move. They hover in her doorway for a moment, and she impulsively leans in and places a kiss on his cheek. She pretends not to notice his sharp inhale of surprise in her ear, or the redness in his cheeks as she pulls away.

“Take care,” he mumbles, his usual goodbye, and she nods, forcing a smile, throat too tight to speak.

The door clicks shut gently behind him, and Karen slumps forward, pressing her face against it and squeezing her eyes shut tight. She won’t let herself cry — she’s afraid if she starts, she’ll never stop. A few stray tears escape anyway, and she drags in a shuddering breath.

Her head rattles as someone knocks on the door. She opens one eye and shifts slightly to her left to look through the peephole, only to see a very nervous-looking Frank looking back at her. She’s so surprised to see him standing there that she takes a step back from the door and stands there blinking. The knock repeats, shaking her out of her daze. She swipes hurriedly at her face, dashing the tears from her eyes, before opening the door.

“Hey, did you forget someth—?” She cuts off with a gasp. Frank is touching her, both hands pulling her close, one cupping the side of her face, fingers brushing the sensitive shell of her ear and tangling in her hair while the other slips from her hip to the small of her back. His eyes search hers for a moment but then he presses his forehead to hers, both their eyes closing so they can just breathe.

“I told myself I wouldn’t ask,” he says. “But I have to know, Karen. I have to know.”

She slides her hands up his chest to curl in the collar of his shirt. “Know what?”

She hears him draw breath to answer, but he hesitates again. “It’s selfish,” he says, shaking his head so his nose brushes across hers.

A slightly hysterical laugh burbles up from Karen’s chest. “That must be a first,” she says, pulling away slightly. Frank opens his eyes to frown at her, and she can see the protest forming on his tongue. “Just ask,” she says, giving him a shake.

His eyes, always so dark and fathomless, search her face, lingering on the traces left by her tears, on the corner of her mouth where the hint of a smile still lingers. He takes a deep breath, his chest expanding under her fists, and nods once. She waits.

“Will you come with me?”

Karen’s breath catches in her chest as Frank half-smiles, brow quirking softly in question.

“What?” She manages.

“I know it’s too much to ask,” he says. “Your whole life is here, friends, job — but you’re important to me, Karen, fuck, you’re the _most important_ thing I’ve got, and I— I can’t—”

She cuts him off with a kiss, feels the jolt of surprise go through him under her touch. Did she misread this? Shit.

“Sorry, sorry,” she gasps, pulling away. “I didn’t mean—“

“No, wait,” Frank says. His hands tighten on her, not letting her retreat. “I’m sorry, I’m just a little out of practice at— uh. All of this.”

She searches his expression, sees the sincerity there. Smiles, bites her lip. Frank’s gaze falls to her mouth.

“Is that a ‘yes,’ then?” His voice is a low, hopeful rumble that she feels as much as hears.

“That’s a _fuck yes_ , Frank.” Her answer startles a laugh out of him.

He’s smiling when he kisses her, soft and slow, a promise for their future.


End file.
